Here is some random wrap-up stuff which I thought fit this “Is Your Church Worse than Porn” series (Part 1, Part 2).
First, a movie.
Second a comic strip from The ongoing Adventures of the ASBO Jesus. (Subscribe to this comic blog if you don’t already.)
Finally, a quote from Vince Antonucci’s book I Became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt
But many of us, most of the time, are not glowing. And when we aren’t glowing, like Moses, we cover our disappointment with a veil. We don’t put on a literal veil; we use a veil of smiles and denials. Christians are famous (or infamous) for this. We wear fake, plastered smiles as a twisted badge of honor, pretending that everything’s great all the time. We say things like, “It’s another great day to praise the Lord!” “This is the day the Lord has made!” What? No, nothing’s wrong! God’s blessings just keep getting better every day!” “God is good all the time!” We hide our true disappointment.
Wow…are you kidding me? No takers on this conversation when you made this post, Jeremy? If I had known you in ’08 I’m not sure what I’d have said. Not really sure what to say today. I just know that people who teach/preach/think everything is supposed to be all positive and happy (“Say I AM an ovahcommahhh! I AM…an Ovah…Commahhhh!”) really rub me the wrong way. That concept just flies in the face of suffering lived out around the world daily by brothers and sisters in persecution. And it flies in the face of my pain, your pain, everybody’s pain…because sometimes life (even with Jesus) just isn’t a total bag of smiles.
Leah,
Well, this post was made a long time ago, before I had too many readers, and like you, I think that the ones I did have didn’t know what to do with it.
I agree with you. Life with Jesus isn’t always a bag of smiles.
Hi
I totally agree, with your statement Jeremy, That is why I don’t go to church like the masses, I go to a home church which is real, we don’t say those sayings, Things are told as it is. Believe me our folks in our church have gone through lots of issues and the comments or praises of God are more like, ‘His grace is sufficient to get us through it. What have I been learning …. through this.’ – One of our families had to have their house moved over to a new foundation. From our wet Spring in 2011 we had, her basement crumbled underneath her house. Our pastor/teacher, is a dairy farmer, he fell down in the pasture trying to get a cow in to the coral so she wouldn’t have a calf in the middle of a pond, and when he fell was instantly paralyzed from the neck down and over the last year and a half has slowly regained his motor skills, he now can type again on his computer to do his messages. He used to dictate to it with his voice. another one.. My family had a false complaint against us and child and family services wanted to take our kids away from us which in the end they could not dig any trash up on me or anyone else, but that event has caused a crash of my marriage and not sure where that is going to end up. Do we as a family still go to our home church? of course we do, do I still smile when I go to church, well sort of. I had to rip 24″ of drywall on my walls from the floor up in the basement this spring from the flooding as I mentioned earlier. I had to get a hole Hydrovaced (dug outside my one corner of my house) to pump the water out to lower the water table to stop the water from coming into my basement. Many another families Christian and non Christian had to do the same, so really I could not say I was singled out or picked on. But in my church Can I express myself that… yeah at times life just plain sucks, yes.. I can and everyone else can do that with in our group. Do people shrink back when you share things about life, no, we gather around and pray for one another and help where we can help one another. Do we hear those saying Jeremy like you mentioned, NO we dont’ say that. In this church .. in a conversation with our pastor that if my marriage ends in divorce (which I hope doesn’t), I know in my town the christian community will disown me for the most part. But our Pastor said, “I won’t” ‘we are here together’ None of us are above the other, we keep serving a good God, and he gives us strength in an imperfect world. Am I glowing at the moment. NOPE. I am a realist, is that possible when your a Christian, I have faith, I have hope, cause Christ made a promise (he who believes in ME has Everlasting life John 6:47). As long as I have that promise, I have hope. I do get disappointed, but God has surrounded me with people that help me get through the day, and Gods Grace is sufficient. But I don’t feel like it at times. But I am still here. 🙂 Things could always be worse you know.
Vaughn
Vaughn,
Those are a lot of difficult and sad stories about life and following Jesus. I am glad that you are learning that His grace is sufficient. I am not sure that I have adequately learned that, and it scares me to think of what I might have to go through to learn it.
Thank you for the encouragement!
Hey Jeremy, you know.. you just encouraged me by your comment. Thanks.
But just for the record, I have not learned it either, but it is a moment by moment step .. hopefully forward. Your work and the articles you provide, old or new keeps me looking forward and looking up. Amen to that. So you are impacting my life when I need it most and when I don’t. Thanks for being real! I do share a lot of your articles at our Sunday gathering just before our prayer time, and we laugh too.. the lighter side of things. So you are encouraging our group as well!
Sincerely, in Him
Vaughn.
church is not a place.. its a people 🙂
Yeah … this is an old post where I was somewhat confused about that.